Uppingham Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Rutland

Uppingham Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Rutland

Uppingham Wesleyan Methodist Chapel was built in 1819 after application had been made to the Chapel Committee for permission to build a chapel costing £400 in 1818-19. It was situated at the junction of Orange Street and north Street West. A photograph of this building shows that was set back from the road behind a yard enclosed by railings. There was a central entrance under a tympanum which appears to have an inscription, There were windows on each side of the entrance and two shallower windows above. The side wall came right up to the highway. Its only window was towards the back, perhaps to light a separate room. The whole could easily taken for a private residence.  By 1860 the original building and subsequent extensions and alterations had cost £536.12.3d. In 1851 there were 60 free and 130 other sittings, 190 in all. In 1873 the chapel provided seating for 180 persons. During the 1870s it was enlarged by extending the front right up to the highway (images 1-2). A characteristic of this work is the range of decorative features on the new façade (images 3-6). In 1891 it was stated that the enlargement of the chapel had increased the seating capacity by fifty bringing the total to 180, which, curiously was fewer than was recorded in 1851. Perhaps the enlargement was more about modernisation, the installation of pews and overall comfort than about numbers. In 1931 there was seating for 178, but this was down to 156 by 1940. There was also a schoolroom and one other room. The twentieth century saw the continuing improvement of the building with a pipe organ installed in 1913, a new heating system in 1935, and comprehensive internal refurbishment in 1999.

Much of this information comes from The Story of Uppingham Methodist Church written by Margaret Stacey in 2001. It can be found online and contains several illustrations including the picture of the original chapel described above, and of the interior both before and after the 1999 refurbishment

Sources

The National Archives,1851 ecclesiastical census HO129/420/1/14

John Rylands Library University of Manchester, DDPD88 Chapel/Trust Schedules, 1855, Melton Mowbray Circuit

Leicestershire Record Office, N/M/NDD 1-15, Annual trust returns, Nottingham and Derby District 1860-1878

John Rylands Library University of Manchester, MAC Lawson Returns of Accommodation provided by Wesleyan Methodist Chapels and other Preaching Places, Melton Circuit 1873/499, 1881/565, 1891/612, 1901/625, 1911/591, 1931/598

John Rylands Library University of Manchester DDPD2 Returns of Accommodation provided by Wesleyan Methodist Chapels and other Preaching Places, Melton Circuit, 1931/598

Methodist Church Buildings: Statistical returns including seating accommodation as at July 1st 1940, p163-4

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